On Maundy Thursday, at Rome's St. John Lateran Cathedral, Pope Paul VI ceremoniously washed and then kissed the feet of twelve Roman Catholic seminarians. It was a symbolic re-enactment of the Last Supper, at which Jesus, according to John, washed the feet of the Twelve Apostles as a sign that he was both the servant and Lord of mankind. The ritual, which was devised in medieval times, is carried out once a year at major cathedrals. In Rome, however, it was dropped at the death of Pope Pius IX in 1878; John XXIII...
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